Affiliate sales can be a lucrative revenue stream, especially during the holiday season. If you aren’t using affiliate marketing, this means that you are recommending another person or company’s product and will get a commission upon sales. Sometimes it can be hard to get started, so here are my best tips for affiliate marketing.
This post contains affiliate links! This means at no extra cost to you, any purchases made through links in the post may result in a commission for me. Thanks for your support!
Listen to Episode 77 – Tips for Affiliate Marketing
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TIPS FOR AFFILIATE MARKETING
Look for affiliate programs for the things you already use.
So many different tools, apps, and courses have affiliate programs. Make a list of the things you use, from web hosting to your note-taking apps. Once you have a list of the things you use, check to see if they have an affiliate program. Usually this will be listed somewhere on the website. If not, google it or email the contact person.
When you get an email about a course or program you like, ask if there is an affiliate program.
A few times this year I received emails about courses or summits that were a great fit for my audience. I hit reply and asked if they had an affiliate program because the promotion would be perfect for my people. Sometimes programs are only open to people who have purchased them. But other times, the creators are open to interested people. When in doubt, ask.
Decide what kind of products & courses you will promote.
Some people will only promote things they have or currently do use. I like to promote things that I have used in the past, use now, or are from someone that I trust enough to recommend without actually using or taking them. There are VERY few people I trust that much. You should decide what feels right for YOU. The programs and items you recommend should be things that you can stand behind or you may risk the trust of your audience.
You will make the best affiliate for products that you are PASSIONATE about.
Tweet ThisDo a mix of evergreen and promotional affiliate sales.
Evergreen products or programs are things like items on Amazon. They are available at all times (though prices may fluctuate). Promotional products are things like courses that open or close, bundles that are limited times, or sales for specific days. Often the promotional launches will have a larger-scale affiliate program where you’ll get daily emails and sales copy that are designed to help you sell. Which leads me to the next tip.
Plan promotional launches on your calendar so you aren’t all promo, ALL the time.
Especially when it comes to big launches of courses or larger products, you don’t want to layer too many on top of each other. If you are launching your own products too, you especially need to watch out for this. Try to plan out what launches will happen when (most course creators know months or a year ahead of time when they will run promotions) and put that on your calendar so it doesn’t get too crowed.
Offer an opt-out in your email.
When you are running promotional affiliate sales over a period of time that will have multiple emails, offer your readers an opt-out. Depending on your email service provider, this may not be possible. In ConvertKit, I simply create a link with a tag that will automatically attach to that person’s email. Then when I send the next promotions, I can exclude the tag from people who aren’t interested in the promotion. This will cut down on the number of unsubscribes. (Read more about why I love ConvertKit!)
ALWAYS DISCLOSE.
For more on this, listen to episode 33. But in short, when it comes to affiliate marketing, you must disclose. This means that in your social media links, you will use a word like ad or affiliate or sponsored. NOT “aff” or “afflink” or “spon.” Those words are not clear to the general masses. Your disclosure should be clear to people who don’t know what affiliate marketing is. In a blog post you should have a statement before any outgoing affiliate links where you state that any sales made by clicking through links may result in a commission for you at no extra cost to them. If you want a longer disclosure explanation, you can have a post and link to that post, but you still need to have a statement that is clearly understood in your post, not simply a link to a post about disclosure. Read a great breakdown of the FTC rules on disclosure here.
Looking for some good affiliate programs?
- ConvertKit (an email service provider)
- Site Ground (a web host- this is my affiliate link!)
- AppSumo (has deals on apps and programs– gives credit, not cash)
- Affiliate Window (a central program with many brands within it)
- Share-a-Sale (same as above- this is my affiliate link!)
- CJ (same as above)
- Ultimate Bundles (sells bundles of digital and physical products a few times a year — this is my affiliate link)
- Amazon (offers a low commission and a short-lived cookie, but has tons of products many people use)
CYBER MONDAY DEALS I MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE!
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The Foundation Series is 50% off through the end of November 28. That’s only $24 for over four hours of workshops helping you bring clarity to your blog, email list, social media, and images. Use the code blackcyber.
I’ve opened up the beta price of the Create If Community Membership through the end of November 28. Use the code BETA to get grandfathered into the membership price. Find out more and sign up for the Create If Community Membership here!
she had been a G.S. – Thank you are a blessing.There are so many happy positive comments, I only hope that if B & G or their family sees them that they don’t get stuck on the few negative ones. I am sure they have done above and beyond for there surrogate. Congrats.
Great advise for all new affiliates. It takes a long time to get a reasonable amount of traffic. This will help a lot of people out
… "..you have become a voice of sanity"One hundred years ago liberalism was based on telling uncomfortable truths; today it's based on outrageous reality-denial. Field is a voice of obfuscation and misdirection.
Nice information,. i think this post very good.if we want to be a profesional affiliater, we must struggle for looking opportunity in every moment.
Very helpful information. Thank you for sharing.
You never knew how you just helped a newbie like me. WIll apply these all to my affiliate marketing blog. Thank you!
I am having a hard time really with promoting affiliate programs. And what I’ve read from your blog makes me wanna work hard again and push affiliate marketing career.
Thank you for sharing. Very helpful.
Thank you for sharing a such informative ideas about affiliate marketing.
Thank you for sharing such an informative ideas about affiliate marketing.
Very helpful post for a new like me. Thank you so much.
Thank you for sharing your ideas, very helpful.
Indeed true. And affiliate marketing result can be very great if done properly and with a lots of patience.
A newbie like me seeking for affiliate marketing guides are very greatful to bloggers who make time in helping us. More power to you!
Hope I can see more affiliate marketing information from you. Thank you for sharing.
I think I benn doing it the wrong way. I don’t have really the patience to do all that stuffs but after reading your article, it somehow inspires me to go work on my affiliate marketing site again.
Excellent article, I thing that to earn some money online is not so hard, but requires to learn to do it.
As a newbie, the tips you mentioned were a great help to my affiliate blog. I got a lot of traffic but really needs hardwork to attain the results.
Great info about affiliate marketing. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for sharing. Great post!
I totally agree with you. It needs a lot of patience when dealing with affiliate marketing.
Thank you for providing these affiliate marketing info. More power to you.
It helped me a lot. Thank you for creating this article.
Please keep on posting more info about affiliate marketing. Very helpful.
I been looking for some ways how to manage affiliate marketing niche well and glad I came to this website. It’s very helpful.
Hi buddy! Super thank you for sharing this. I followed everything and I think my traffic change a little bit. It’s a good start for me. I can see I’m moving forward with this few traffic. It’s does really need a push.
Very true. And impressive article by the way. Points are very clear. Keep it up!
One day, I might see progress on what I am doing. I honestly lost but thanks to you. You are guiding a newbie like me. Many thanks!
Great and impressive. I do hope you’ll write more specially about how to market affiliate products. I am having hard time making a single sale. Thanks in advance.
Thank you for sharing such a wonderful and helpful ideas.